12 Big-Time Reactions To S&P's Downgrade Decision

When Standard and Poor's decided to downgrade U.S. credit for the first time in history on Friday, it set off a firestorm of commentary, bringing out passionate views of all varieties from some of the most famous minds in business and economics. All that was missing was something vaguely resembling a consensus.

Still, it's Christina Romer, former Obama economic adviser, that takes the cake in the sound bite department. Asked to describe the U.S. economy after the downgrade, she needed only three words: "Pretty darn f*cked."

Here are some of the biggest reactions from big-name voices in business and economics:

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"I can go out drinking all night, but if I've got a printing press, my debt is good," Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said about his confidence in U.S. debt on CNBC. "Our currency is not AAA, and in recent months the performance of our government has not been AAA, but our debt is AAA," Buffett adds.

"S&P finally got it right...They are enforcing some discipline. My hat is off to them," co-founder of PIMCO Bill Gross told Bloomberg TV, referring to the U.S.'s huge federal deficit.

"There's nothing good to say about what they've done," former Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers said about Standard and Poor's decision to downgrade on CNN's State of the Union.

"[Standard and Poor's] have shown a stunning lack of knowledge about the basic U.S. fiscal budget math," Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner said on CNBC. Washington officials claim the credit rating agency made a $2 trillion error in estimating the U.S. federal deficit.

"Pretty darn f**ked," Christina Romer, former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Obama, said of the U.S. economy following the downgrade on Real Time with Bill Maher.

"It is a political move,...an outrageous move," Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes Inc, said about the credit downgrade on CNN's State of the Union.

"And it's hit the self-esteem of the United States, the psyche. It's having a much profounder effect than I conceive could happen," former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan said of the downgrade's impact on NBC's Meet the Press.

"An event like this should change our thinking [about military spending]," Rep. Barney Frank (D - MA) said, blaming the U.S.'s large defense budget for the downgrade on CBS's The Early Show.

"There is no reason to take Friday's downgrade of America seriously," economist Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times referring to the S&P's questionable credibility. "These are the last people whose judgment we should trust," he added.

"The latest casualty in President Obama's failed record of leadership," GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said in a public statement about the downgrade.

"America's downgrade may serve as a wakeup call for its policymakers," Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-CIO of PIMCO, wrote in an op-ed.

"This is the United States of America. No matter what some agency may say, we've always been, and always will be, a triple-A country," President Barack Obama said in a speech Monday. He also acknowledged "that doesn't mean we don't have a problem."